MI chief: Iran has enough nuclear material for bomb

Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin said Tuesday that Iran has over the last year accumulated enough materials to create a nuclear bomb and warned: "The technological clock has almost finished winding."

Speaking at The Institute for National Security Studies, Yadlin said that Iran had embarked on a "measured and sophisticated strategy for a solid nuclear infrastructure, by spreading out in facilities both overt and covert, while simultaneously developing a military capability that would allow a breakthrough when it so decides."

According to Yadlin, there are three clocks now ticking with regard to Iran's contentious nuclear program ? those of technology, diplomacy, and of the stability of the Islamic regime. Technologically, said Yadlin, time was almost up.

The Times of London reported Monday that Iran is set to test a key component aimed at developing a nuclear weapon. The report cited secret intelligence documents related to Tehran's controversial nuclear program, which foreign intelligence agencies date to early 2007, Tehran had planned to test a neutron initiator, the component which triggers the explosion in a nuclear weapon.

The document revealed in The Times report described the use of a neutron source, uranium deuteride, which experts said had no possible use other than in a nuclear weapon.

Experts also mentioned to the British newspaper that Uranium deuteride is the material used in Pakistan's nuclear weaponry bomb, from where Iran obtained its blueprint.

"Although Iran might claim that this work is for civil purposes, there is no civil application," David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, told The Times, adding that the document was "a very strong indicator of weapons work."